The week that wasn’t

This article was originally posted by Charlene at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

This week I planned to front load a 1000 meter interval workout and my long run, take Wednesday off, run easy with strides Thursday and Friday, and race the Crazy Legs Classic on Saturday, and then to take an easy day on Friday. Crazy Legs is a huge 8k with lots of great competition and I was hoping to get good insight into my current fitness. As my 1k repeats went great on Monday I was feeling very optimistic.

Of course God laughs when one plans anything (esp running) and my plan abruptly changed late Thursday night as I came down with a horrible stomach virus that made me wish for death numerous times between bedtime and sunrise. I only seem to get stomach viruses every few years right before races. Friday was not a whole lot better as the most I managed all day was to get out of bed to clean and disinfect my laundry basket. It is hard to be sick when you are Mom and esp when Daddy is away but my own Mom did come to take my littlest one to the farm as he had the day off from school.

I decided quite wisely to cancel my race plans on Saturday and hoped to at least get in my other quality workout for the week on Sunday. My appetite and strength failed to return however and today I set out on my warm up to the track worried that it was too soon for a hard workout. I decided to attempt a tempo run but to back off if it felt icky at all. The temperature had risen from 50 to low 70s degrees since Thursday so I was a little worried about being under hydrated in temps although mild not what I an acclimatized too.

Once I got to the track I noticed a young man training for a Special Olympics Track meet. He told me he came early to practice to enjoy the weather. He also asked for help in training for the 3200. I had a tempo run planned so I thought for a moment and suggested that I run in lane 8 and that he run in lane one but that he should just run every other lap with me. I was hoping to do 5 or 6 miles but only ended up doing 2 as I decided that my body needed one more day as the 2nd mile did not feel right. This was most likely just the right amount of running though for my new friend before his regular practice and he did very well and impressed me with his work ethic.

My appetite finally came back several hours post run so I know that I will be ready to do this tempo on Monday. I only ended up with 36 miles for the week but that was not bad for only 4 days of running. My half marathon is only 3 weeks away and I am not too worried about missing a few days. One low week due to sickness is not so detrimental to training when one has 4 months of good mileage stacked up already this year. The next two weeks I will work hard, then taper one week, and hopefully be in peak condition for Green Bay. That is the plan anyway….